


of strength and unusual meeting places

by katotastic000



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Autistic Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Bullying, Owada Daiya's Death, have you seen the movie "Imitation Game"? kinda like that, ishimondo - Freeform, kinda like the sauna scene but not in the sauna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22621513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katotastic000/pseuds/katotastic000
Summary: Mondo should be in detention. Instead, he talks to the boy he found under the floorboards.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 85





	of strength and unusual meeting places

**Author's Note:**

> As mentioned in the tags, this is kind of inspired by the movie "Imitation Game" (great movie, excellent acting). In the scene that I took inspiration from, the protagonist who is autistic and gay is trapped under the floorboards by his classmates and found by the boy he later falls in love with.  
> I had the headcanon that Taka was in some form or way autistic for a while but I was reluctant about explicitly putting that in the tags in fear of portraying it inappropriately. So, as I mean no harm and this is my first attempt at that kind of portrayal, feedback on that is very much appreciated!

He breathed dust. Dust and dirt and despair for that he was not able to scream. The students above laughed and gave the floorboards another mighty kick. Another dash of powder in his nose. He sneezed. The exhale sent more dust flying, the inhale afterwards sucked all of it in. It tasted old and dry, like eating a cobweb and the spider with it, and clotted his throat. He needed to cough to free himself but if he made a noise, they'd continue. He had learned that. That he had to nearly die from suffocation to bore them enough to leave him alone for one afternoon of all the afternoons in his two last years at Hope's Peak Academy.

Oh, the irony.

Mondo was actually proud of himself that he even managed to be late to detention. He had no real reason to go (in his opinion which disagreed with the stack of his unsigned detention slips that rotted away somewhere) except that he had to attend just once, for intimidation, to show that pesky hall monitor that Mondo Owada, Ultimate Biker Gang Leader, was not the guy you'd like to disagree with.

Mondo couldn't even point out what he specifically hated about this guy (Mondo couldn't really remember his name. Something along the lines of Taka and Ishikawa or whatever.)

His stare - Mondo only had to open his mouth and that guy's weird ass saucer-looking eyes burned through his face into his brain. They had the color of laser so maybe that wasn't that far from happening. Also, what the hell was wrong with his eyebrows? Was he aware that they were far too big and intense, and he looked like he had murder on his mind every time he turned to someone? The way that he was always _cheerful_ \- Didn't he have, like, problems? Did he really have zero worries when he entered the classroom every morning, a chirpy "Good morning, everyone!" in his smile? Sometimes Mondo was so close to opening his inner swear jar that he could only stifle his storm with kicking away that guy's chair under his annoying ass. Well, Mondo was fucking sorry that his morning was in fact _not_ good because of his _problems_ , the casual ones, you know, like his mental health and life hanging on a _thin fucking thread_?

The fact that that guy stayed after class to assist the teacher in cleaning the classroom and rearranging the desks. How he stopped in the middle of the hallway to sort lockers that were not his just because they weren't as tidy as his own. His uniforms (or was it just one?) that he wore every single day because who knows.

What the hell was wrong with that guy? Not that Mondo was seriously concerned, psh, no, he just wanted to understand why he did the things like he did, in his own hyper organized, weird ass, special way.

And so, Mondo found himself scruffling into the detention classroom, a hum of some old song on his lips. "'Sup", he mumbled and didn't get any answer back. Weird. There were supposed to be some other kids in this detention, some second-class bad boy-wannabes from the Reserve Course. As far as Mondo knew from that guy, he had piled up basically detention twice every day for two months due to his lack of attendance in class and detention. Getting detention for not coming to detention, good plan. And so, that guy had to squeeze Mondo's schedule in between his own, the Ultimates' and the Reserves'. And there Mondo was. Alone.

Correction: Not alone, apparently. Or someone in the classroom next door was breathing really loudly which was relatively unlikely. Someone somewhere in this room muffled their breath but not properly, or their breathing was too loud to be fully silenced.

"Uh, hey? Hello?", Mondo asked in the room that was empty on the surface. Wow, he finally showed up for detention once and now... there was _not_ nobody here but why were they hiding?

He looked around, raising his eyebrow. Something about this room was off. There were single long, crooked and thick chalk lines on the board and a bunch of books slightly hanging over the edges of the teacher's desk. "Hello?", Mondo asked again, this time with more annoyance. No answer, no surprise. "Well, fucking hell", he muttered and turned around to leave again. "Waste of my time." He buried his hands into the pockets of his leather coat, gave his anger a little way with kicking one of the desks near the door and stopped. Someone just coughed.

"Okay, this shit's getting old. Come out!", Mondo shouted in the emptiness. A whine replied. Then sobs. Then breaths getting faster and faster. It was all coming from... under him? He knitted his brows and looked down.

Weird ass saucer-looking laser eyes. This couldn't be.

"What the fuck, dude?" Mondo shoved away the desk with one hard push. "How did you get there?" He knelt down. The floor was old, the wood burst but the nails that held down the boards right above that guy were fresh. Mondo ripped them out with hardly any effort but caught three splinters. Didn't hurt as much, who cares.

And there he really was. That guy, Taka Ishikawa or whatever (something in Mondo decided to think of him as "Taka" from now on), really laid there with dust in his raven spikes, eyelashes and thick brows and dirt on his usually so pure white uniform. His breathing was ragged and violent, the tears that were streaming down his cheeks cleaning his face from the grime. His bony fingers were folded on his chest. His whole body was trembling.

Mondo had to think of a grave.

"Who did this to you?" He noticed that he whispered. Taka answered the question with another question. He barely managed to break through his line of sobs. "Will you hurt me... Mondo Owada?"

This would be the perfect chance. The moment Mondo had been waiting for, to show this guy not to mess with him. To leave him here in his dusty, dirty hole, to put the floorboards back to where they trapped him and wait until he calls for help. Mondo would steal all of his detention slips and burn them and show this guy how to never give him any again.

Mondo couldn't.

Taka had problems. Massive ones. Ones that could have killed him if he wasn't found until after this weekend. Whoever did this knew it was Friday. Whoever did this would be a murderer in three days and maybe never if Taka wasn't found. Maybe Mondo was exaggerating. But who cared in the end?

"No, 'course I won't hurt ya." Mondo did. Out of... pity? Could be. Mondo extended his hand for Taka to grab but he wanted to struggle on his own to get out of the hole. "You okay?", Mondo asked after Taka finally knelt next to him and waited for his breath to return and the tears to stop. He laid a hand on his shoulder. Taka winced. Mondo recoiled.

With shaky legs, swaying and holding onto desks, Taka stood up and stumbled over to the teacher's desk. Mondo could hear how he stacked up the books that were scattered over it. Then, he wiped away the lines on the board, dried it and finally sat down on the floor, leaning against the front of the desk. Mondo slumped next to him.

"I have multiple questions", Taka said, trying to keep his voice low and calm, and failing. He had his hands folded again, laying squeezed in his lap. "Are you really not going to hurt me?" "I mean," Mondo scratched his neck because he kinda did hurt him in the past. Guilt tasted bitter in his mouth. "Not right now. Can't promise anything for the future but not now." "If so, then,", Taka continued. "Why won't you hurt me?"

Mondo sighed and leaned his head against the desk. "Not after this. This is not the everyday 'messing-with-ya', this is cruel. You shouldn't let yourself be treated like that." Taka looked up to him, his laser eyes (they didn't even look that inhuman from close up) wide and wet. Then he turned his head away again.

"But why did you hurt me in the past?"

Mondo shrugged in a disguise of indifference. "Dunno." Taka turned to look at him again, brows furrowed in concentration, and again saw through his skin and face but didn't seem to understand. Heat implanted in Mondo's neck, crawling further up, and he started to pick at the new splinters and old scars on his knuckles. Not to return Taka's stare.

"I've always done that. Makes me feel better, I guess." Mondo grinded his teeth. Although he was taller than Taka by nearly a head, his slouched shoulders and drawn up knees brought him back to time when he, the boy, stood behind his brother, the one that had to grow up to a man way too fast, only to protect him.

Mondo grew up in a place where violence was power. It decided over who was in the wrong, what was forbidden, who had the right to speak. The bigger fist, the louder voice determined the one that ruled the family. That role was taken over by his father. Smoker, occasionally a drinker, decent job, decent money; a relatively decent outlook for everyone that may have been a help.

As a matter of fact, Daiya had been his half-brother, over his mother's side. Not that it would matter, really. Mondo never thought about it despite all the times his father called over to their mother, "Get this fucking brat out of my way to discipline _my_ son." And no matter how much his mother would plead and pull him away, Daiya never moved.

Mondo owed Daiya their home and the tiny, softly glowing part in him that was his happiness. Daiya, whose soul was twice as broken and twice as stubborn to survive in Mondo's eyes, gathered a few people, got a few motorcycles and called it all the "Crazy Diamonds." And then the brothers watched them arise. The gang soon became a shelter for every hurt man they'd find on the street, it became more of a first family than a second.

Then came that day.

"It makes you feel stronger", Taka stated. "I've read that this is the most common reason." Mondo stayed silent and both did for a while. "What makes you feel weak?"

The sound of brakes. Honking cars. Ambulances. Flashing lights. Blood on his hands. Graveyards. Lies. His mother's voice. "You won't leave me, too, won't you?" Her calls. The fact that he missed all of them. Old pictures. Commitments. Injuries. Losing. Nightmares. Tears. The need to feel loved.

"Why you asking?", Mondo wanted to snap but couldn't, his vocal cords glued to the back of his throat. "Every issue has its cause." "Personal stuff", Mondo replied flatly, shoving the topic away. "Seek help then", Taka answered as if that'd be so easy. "It would only benefit you and your fellows." Silence again.

Taka broke it, "I'm still not understanding why you helped me and even less why you stayed after it." Mondo got back to fumbling with the loose strands of his hair on his neck. "I really don't know. I mean, I helped ya cuz you don't kick a man laying beat up on the ground, y'know? And to why I'm still here. I guess, it's cuz you were crying. Even if you are one annoying bastard sometimes, I kinda felt bad for you."

"People often tell me that I'm annoying", Taka said blankly. For a moment, Mondo noticed that he was scratching the nail of his thumb with the other before enclosing them tightly in a fist. "I mean, going around throwing detentions and 'No running in the halls!' at people isn't the best way to make friends." "But I'm doing this for their own sake!" Taka's fists were suddenly shaking, his teeth notching into his lips, eyes flooding once more.

Mondo cocked his head. In any other situation, he now realized, he would have laughed at him. "I punish students so they recognize their mistakes as society would not treat them any different!", Taka continued, voice wobbly but persistent enough to make a point even through all the tears that clouded it. As if he was not ashamed of them. "I point out reckless behavior to students, so they won't endanger themselves and others! That's my job as the Ultimate Moral Compass! Is that so wrong?"

The hall monitor had fully sat up and turned to him, in a seemingly unmovable kneeling position but his eyes were more piercing than they had ever been, blazing flames behind swashing waves.

Mondo's own eyes fell to the ground. Under his scarred skin, his knuckles moved as he clenched and relaxed his fist. Was that strength? To have scars cover your hands; scars from punching, hitting bone, hitting walls and desks and grounds? Or was _that_ strength? Acting out your responsibilities without regard to any freedom, without thinking of consequences for yourself, going with the flow?

Was it even necessary to be that strong?

"Guess I'm doin' it cuz of my bro 'n my gang. Y'know hurtin' people 'n all that", Mondo slurred, parting his lips as little as possible in order to hold the lump in his throat in place and not letting it explode as the thundering volume of his voice. Taka relaxed, keeping his posture nonetheless, and wiped away some tears with the back of his hand. "Right, you are the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader after all", he said though mostly to himself, it seemed.

Mondo nodded absently. "Yeah, I gotta be strong for them. Gotta take after my brother." He lightly brushed over his scars with his thumb. "Did he move on from your gang?" Taka furrowed his brows when Owada quietly chuckled. "He died." Every part of the expression that Taka wore on his face collapsed. "I'm sorry", he practically gasped. "It's fine. It's been some years." Taka gave an undefined hum as an answer.

"You do know that you can't be a biker forever", the hall monitor spoke after a minute of quietness, lowly as if uncharacteristically afraid to speak up. "Yeah, yeah, I know that", Mondo mumbled. "I'm thinking 'bout becoming a carpenter," His throat tightened and the only way for him to breathe properly again was the unintentional shouting. "Making stuff 'stead of breaking it!"

He hissed a swear and threw back his head when Taka asked, "Are you okay?" "Yeah, just," Mondo sighed and pulled on some strands of hair on his neck. "Just nervous." "You don't have to be." A warm smile made its way onto Taka's lips and seeing it, knowing it was meant for him, felt... _good_? Mondo's confusion was visible. "I think that is an excellent way to move on. It is pleasant to see that there is so much good and honesty in you."

Light. There was no other way of describing it. Or Mondo couldn't think of another one, which was more likely. All the weight that pressed down his shoulders was not gone yet Mondo was able to straighten his back, get up and be... not strong, no, more like who he was. There was no need to pretend because Taka wasn't either and he was not scared to show his true self. He felt light enough for tears to break through the barriers. He blinked them away though one was able to escape. He roughly wiped over his cheek and changed the subject.

"Hey, why didn't you let me touch you back there?" "Oh." Taka's seriousness returned although this time around, it didn't make him look like the pesky hall monitor Mondo had known him as. But maybe it was Mondo who had changed. "I don't like to be touched. But now, I think it's okay." Taka lowered his head as in a bow and _was he blushing?_ as he said, "You are a truly nice man." Mondo laid a hand on his shoulder. _God fuck, now I'm doing it, too._

" This is actually comforting." Taka regarded the hand on him with a gentle gleam in his eyes. Then he directed this shine to Mondo, his whole face beaming. "Can you go on?" The biker had to smirk and thought, _what a weird-ass dork_ , and put his other hand on Taka's other shoulder before enclosing him in a hug.

Taka let it happen. The tension in his muscles vanished. Maybe this was freedom: applying changes to the things that had defined him before. Kiyotaka Ishimaru had a set of morals, a sense of justice that no one would ever take away from him. But now he noticed that he had been too close-minded. He regretted that he hadn't been capable of evolving. Yes of course, Mondo had done mostly socially unacceptable acts and for that he was infamous but Mondo was human. Mondo knew mercy, had a conscience, had a heart and all that he had shown to him. Mondo was so present with his arms around Ishimaru. Finally, he was not alone anymore.

"Mondo?" Owada broke the hug. "Yeah?" "Do you mind if I call you my friend?" Kiyotaka pressed his lips together and stared at him out of his sharp flaming eyes. This made Mondo chuckle. He ruffled through Taka's hair and Ishimaru, though raising his brows in surprise and looking up to what Mondo was doing, allowed it. "Yeah, sounds good."

Taka's spirit immediately shone brighter; he grinned widely, eyes practically overflowing with sparkling and fire and opened his arms as he prepared to exclaim something but Mondo saw the opening of his arms as a cue to go in for another embrace. Taka didn't seem to mind, hurling his arms around Mondo's chest and squeezing him tightly.

"So, hey, Taka," They parted after Mondo spoke up. "Yes?" Ishimaru was still beaming. God, this dude had energy and it sent Mondo's blood rushing. "How about," Mondo stood up with an unintentional groan and extended a hand to his friend. "we call each other 'kyoudai'? My brother and I used to do that, it's like calling each other 'bro' or something." Taka considered, at least he knitted his brows. Then his expression softened. "I would very much like that, kyoudai!"

They shared a smile, Kiyotaka grabbed Mondo's hand and Owada pulled him on his feet as he said, "You're such a nerd, kyoudai." "Is that a bad thing?", Taka asked. Mondo laughed, ruffled through his hair again, put an arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer while they walked out of the classroom. "No, cuz it's you."


End file.
